Tiny things
by jammydoughnut
Summary: It isn't just the big events that change the world. Short fic set between T2&3 no spoilers, though surely you watched them all by now!
1. Chapter 1

Gwen stepped gingerly round another stack of candles, placed perfectly to tempt the unwary. It was difficult picking her way round the furniture displays of IKEA in the darkness of a midnight alien hunt, especially as she was balancing her larger than average handgun, the portable rift detector and a flash light while searching for who knows what.

"Ianto, have you managed to find the lights yet Love?" she whispered into thin air knowing her comms unit was picking up everything.

"Leave them till we know what we're dealing with" replied Jack in her ear. Gwen huffed a little

"We don't even know what 'it' is, we could miss it in the dark." You could almost hear the pout in her voice.

She swept the flashlight round again, seeing Jacks torch reflecting back over one of the stud walls, must be in the fabric section she thought, then wondered how many Sunday afternoons she had wasted in here to be able to pinpoint departments. It was times like this she missed having the extra pair of eyes back in the Hub, directing the action rather than juggling equipment. She dropped her torch and swore.

"Language, potty mouth." Came Jacks voice in her ear, "There are innocent young ears around."

"I hope you don't mean me, not after last night anyway." Muttered Ianto.

"TMI Boys" said Gwen regaining the torch from under a bed. "Got a fix." She said triumphantly. "North west corner, not moving."

Gwen could hear Jacks boots picking up the pace but she was closer.

"Careful we don't know what we are dealing with." Warned Jack

Gwen thought it was a superfluous comment, when did they ever know what they were dealing with? She rounded the corner of one of the kitchen installations just as the overhead lighting came on.

"I think we're safe." She muttered

"What makes you say that?" asked Ianto, she could hear him walking up the metal stairs smartly, the sound of his leather shoes ringing up through the empty stair well. Jack skidded to a halt behind her, his Webley still raised high.

"It could be due to the fact it's a five foot teddy bear." She said flicking off the torch and taking a far less confrontational stance. "Or it could be that it's eating the plastic display fruit, honestly I don't think we have the sharpest tool in the box."

"What do you want?" asked Jack with a snarl, the cuddly looking bear took another bite from the hollow plastic apple and chucked the remains into the display bin. It looked up from it's cute furry toes and fixed Jack with a beady purple eye and smiled. Gwen gasped, far from cute it pulled a green tongue down across a set of razor sharp pins and belched.

"Grizzly" intoned Ianto in his blandest voice. "Your nursery must have been interesting."

"Well?" Asked Jack impatiently.

"Nice welcome for a fellow time agent." The voice sounded stilted as it tapped on a wrist strap that was bigger than Jacks.

"Left long time ago, I hear I'm not the only one."

"Wouldn't know, I don't get the gossip, I'm only here to invoke protocol one." The tone had smoothed out thanks to it's button pressing.

"Told you I'm not on the payroll."

"Whatever, your choice." Gwen looked at Ianto, but he looked just as blank. "Unless you act you probably won't exist tomorrow."

It smiled again and lifted it's wrist.

"Stop, I need more information." Shouted Jack

It shrugged "Your problem." And disappeared in a flash of energy.

Jack turned to the rest of his team, Ianto was leaning on the countertop.

"So" Gwen drew out the vowel sound and rocked back, arms crossed and foot tapping. When there was no reply she kept going. "Going to let us in on your secret code?"

Jack stood speechless for a second and then sat back on a chrome breakfast stool.

"Can't trace it." Said Ianto looking up from his PDA, "Jack, what's wrong?"

Jack just sat breathing heavily.

"Protocol One?" There was another raised eyebrow from Gwen and Ianto put a controlling hand on her shoulder. "Was he ordering Chinese or is it the end of the world, again?"

Silence.

"What was that?" Asked Gwen still trying to get a response, Jack was so quiet they were both worried.

He took a deep breath, "That was a gatekeeper".

Ianto started updating the species database but Jack waved his hand

"No it's a time agency thing, when you mess with time you have to have some sort of checks and balances, the butterfly effect you know beating wings and storms." He gathered himself together and brought his head back up, "The agency stationed agents through time that just blend in with the background, a signal gets sent every few minutes and if it has a significantly different history to the one stored and sent with the agent you know something has changed, it's their job to stop that change before it happens and restore future history."

They stared at Jack,

"How could that blend in?" asked Gwen

Jack just raised an eyebrow, "Didn't say he was from this solar system." Gwen mentally kicked herself, just when she thought she had this whole alien thing sorted she went a made a tit of herself with a question like that.

"So what do you need to do then?" asked Ianto patiently.

"Donno, I've got to work it out myself the gatekeeper can't tell you what the future might hold."

"But you work for Torchwood now." Said Gwen, Jack just tapped his wrist strap,

"Still gives out a signal."

"Right then." Ianto suddenly became very business like "What are we looking for." He wanted this over and done with so he could get back to his warm and comfortable bed and pretend like he had a normal job.

"Could be anything, I mean what if an agent had stopped Lee Harvey Oswold, what if they hadn't stopped Chernobyl when they did?" He looked up again sharply, his team had the good sense to ignore his historical faux pas.

"What did he mean you won't exist?" asked Ianto quietly

"Change history and I might never be born, which will change the present, which will change the future, which will further change the present."

They stood quietly digesting the ramifications in the fake kitchen, Gwen tapping her foot distractedly till she got a look off Ianto.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked Gwen

Jack shrugged, how did you quantify the unquantifiable?

"We can't just do nothing." She said in exasperation, two years at Torchwood and she still couldn't comprehend not everything could be fixed.

"What do you want me to do? It could be anything, we'll only find out after it happens."

Silence descended again, punctuated by a frantic tapping on Iantos screen,

"I think I might have a solution," he looked Jack directly in the eye "But you're not going to like it."

"Shoot Ianto, got nothing to loose here."

Ianto decided to go for the business like approach, "As you know Tosh built the rift predictor around algorithms that look at the most likely outcomes from present events and then compare them with past events to predict the when the rift will open, however she never managed to predict where it would open with much accuracy." They both nodded wondering where he was going, "Well just before she…" he paused – he didn't need to finish the sentence, "well, she thought she knew how to fix that."

Jack tapped on the counter, "We might not have much time here."

"She'd written a patch but she needed one last piece of data for the formula, but she was too scared to ask. If had that I could plug it in and we could test her theory."

"Used the Rift like some sort of barometer for changing temporal energy?" Gwen sounded like she knew what she was talking about, guess they'd all grown up since Grey, even Rhys could now be relied on to not step directly into the path of a marauding Weevil.

Ianto was nodding, Jack had stood up, trying to regain some control over the situation. "What do you need, answer to the theory of time dilation, the final equation on frame dragging?" the comments went rushing over both Gwen and Iantos heads, the Theory of Relativity wasn't a fourth grade subject until the 34th century.

"No something much more simple, I need a fixed point in the future, I need your date and place of birth."

Jack fixed him with a stare that would melt marble.

"Not happening."

And he stalked off towards the exit, turning round after about ten paces when he worked out he was going in the wrong direction. The remainder of Torchwood wisely let him lead the way.


	2. Chapter 2

Gee, wasn't expecting such a great response, thank you everyone who reviewed or put me on their alert.

This is just a short one if you have more time stop by my other stories which are "slightly" longer. You might notice a thread of time through my current story – Never mess with the rift.

Thanks for reading enjoy!

"But Jack this could be the end of the world, would it be so bad if we knew you were 181 or 182?" reasoned Gwen, stood over Jack in his half lit office.

"Give or take 2000 years." Ianto placed a cup of industrial strength coffee on Jacks desk.

"Not the point Gwen, say this works then every time you do something you'll end up checking to see if it changes the future. You'll never be able to make a decision again."

It sounded sensible,

"So you add it into the equation and then delete it afterwards."

"And have UNIT hacking in again before I wipe the system, they got to the third tier last week."

"I'll add security upgrade to the list." Ianto added from the sofa.

Gwen gave a grunt of frustration

"Did you just stamp your foot?" asked Jack incredulously, Gwen huffed a little more and turned her back on him intending to sit next to Ianto. She quickly spun back round shocked by the sound of shattering china and was nearly bowled over by Ianto who was shouting Jacks name.

Jack was sprawled on the floor, having slid painfully out of his old wooden office chair, hitting his head on the way down causing it to bleed in gushing way even the slightest head wound does. It was one of the few times Gwen had ever seen Jack looking anything less than matinee idol, he looked old. Ianto took hold of his hand and quickly checked his responses assisting him as he struggled upwards.

"What happened? Are you alright Jack?" Gwen squatted down to flick the pottery shards out of the way, Ianto placed the bin next to her.

"Just zoned out a second." He pushed his way back up into his chair as Ianto started to dab at the blood,

"No it's more than that isn't it." Said Ianto as he threw the sodden handkerchief in the bin, another perfectly serviceable garment ruined by Torchwood. "This is it starting."

Jack just looked glazed then refocused touching his head as if nothing had been said.

"Jack, you've got to give me that information or we all go to Hell in a handcart." He turned to Gwen, "Go down and open the rift prediction software on Tosh's computer."

Jack garbled something at them with a frown and then repeated himself, Ianto looked at him "21st century English, or Welsh but you'd need to learn that."

"I said I'll be fine, but perhaps I won't."

"Just give me the information, retcon me afterwards if you have to but I am not going to loose you like this."

"So masterful, I like it." He said before sliding forward again, Ianto went to pull him up but his hand went through thin air. He took an involuntary step back before trying again and catching him under the arms. He hefted Jack up right and started pulling him towards the main Hub shouting for Gwen.

Jack walked a few steps under his own steam and then Ianto had to drag him intermittently down to the computer bay.

"Two ticks Ianto I'm getting to the page now."

He sat Jack on the sofa and ran down picking up a pad and pen, Gwen turned round and looked at Jack

"Whoah." Ianto turned to look, like a flickering movie Jack had a beard, long hair then went grey then their normal Jack. "At least he's still here."

"The information now Jack." Said Ianto, the response was unintelligible

"It's like he's speaking a foreign language." She said starting to look a little scared.

Ianto thrust the pen in Jack's hand and he wrote in a script that wouldn't be recognisable for 2000 years.

"Quick run it through the translator"

Gwen scanned it, took the result and plugged the co-ordinates into the algorithm.

"What now?" she asked Ianto

"We wait and then you act" said Jack before passing out.

Precious minutes passed by as the computer worked out a million new possibilities, Gwen and Ianto manhandled Jack onto the couch a watched the myriad of changing faces and occasional disappearances. The wait was unbearable, they didn't want to touch him in case he reappeared in the space they also occupied. Finally the computer chimed and flashed a map of Cardiff pinpointing a street in Splott. Gwen snatched her bag and checked the magazine of her gun was full while running to the SUV, it surprised her that it was daylight as she fitted her comm unit and flung the car into gear.

"Do we know what the event is yet?" She asked throwing the black beast around corners in away that would make Jack proud, the dashboard display automatically zooming further and further in.

Ianto was torn between staying with Jack and trying to refine the monitor, with a growl he sat in front of the computer and started tapping away.

"It seems to have something to do with the temporary traffic signals at the top of Wilson Street , the affect seems to lessen when they are on red."

"Can't you change the sequencing so they are permanently stopped?" she shouted, Ianto could hear the horns in the back ground.

"Can't, they are on a generator in the street."

"Right then, I'll just have to shoot the bloody thing then."

Ianto wiggled the fingers on his right hand, he was getting pins and needles,

"Gwen, how are you feeling?" he asked quietly looking at the hell Jack was going through.

"Cracking headache" there was the sound of screeching tyres as the SUV went round the corner on two wheels.

Ianto started flicking through CCTV pictures of the Plass above his head, one or two people were being helped to the numerous benches and someone was running to a lone figure throwing up on the wooden centre deck. These must all be people who wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Jack over the years he had served Torchwood.

"It's all starting to break down Gwen."

Gwen answered with a grunt, she was nearly there, couple of hundred yards to go and the SUV was still doing 70.

"Slow down Gwen." Ianto was shouting even as he grabbed his stomach in pain and collapsed panting on the desk, then blacked out.

Gwen wasn't hearing him either, the pain in her head had got to distraction level and she was blacking out intermittently herself, but something drove her onward. She pitched forward onto the steering wheel, the horn suddenly blaring but her foot stayed on the accelerator until she smashed into the generator and brought the whole of Splott to a standstill at 8:45am.

Jack shook his head as he sat up on the sofa, he couldn't remember how he got there or why he was sleeping on the job. Scanning round quickly he saw Ianto face down on his keyboard, he shouted his name as he ran across the Hub. Ianto stirred groggily and turned to look at sound as Jack reached him. He ran a hand down his cheek and rested it on his shoulder as if to confirm that they were both still there.

"What the hell happened?"

Ianto rubbed his side and sat back shaking his head, suddenly the computer squawked at them and they both looked up at the angry flashing red dot superimposed on the map of Cardiff .

"Gwen!" they said in unison

Ianto started on improving the real time satellite image of the stationary SUV while Jack scrabbled for his comms device. He slipped it in his ear and then pulled it back out as it was only a mix of static and the blaring horn. Checking the information Ianto had brought up only confirmed their suspicions that the SUV had stopped because it had crashed, Jack was running even before Ianto had snatched his keys from the edge of the desk where they had been placed earlier in the day.

Ianto's small car didn't quite have the impact of the SUV and they ended up abandoning it about three streets from the accident. Jack sprinted off as Ianto tried to park it safely but gave up after three attempts to find a space, Torchwood could pick up the fine, again. Just force of presence allowed Jack to cut through the crowd, his authoritarian tone adding gravitas till he reached Gwen. The SUV was at a strange angle, front wheels were mounted on the generator which itself had tipped to a forty five degree angle, the fuel was dripping out of both machines and mingling in a pool that was creeping it's way towards the huddle on the pavement. At the centre was Gwen surrounded by a couple of kids, and an old woman who was obviously nebbing rather than helping. Jack barrelled through nearly knocking the kid down who was supporting her shoulders, and lifted her head to check on the source of blood that the boy was trying to dab away.

"She got out of the car herself, I didn't move her, they told us never to move them in the first aid class."

"I'm fine." Said Gwen shaking her head and wincing, Jack smiled his million watt smile at the young lad.

"Good job, you'd have been right not to move her but I think we should get away from the accident before that lot goes up." He started shooing the crowd on, most of the other youths all to happy to comply started to move but the old woman stood her ground even as the politer of the boys tried to explain the dangers. Jack helped Gwen to stand with the help of the boy and unceremoniously pulled the woman with them as Ianto finally made it round the corner with a large first aid kit.

"It's all their fault you know." She chuntered "Standing on street corners she had to swerve to miss that one stepping out." The fickle finger of fate pointed at the helpful boy as the others all stared at the pavement. Ianto saw his job even before Jack had to give him the nod, he passed the bag to Jack, straightened his tie and smiled at the woman.

Half way down the street they stopped and Jack lent Gwen against the wall,

"Any of you guys have a phone?" The four boys all whipped out their mobiles

"Do you want an ambulance?" asked the bravest of the boys

"Just the fire brigade."

"You're not going to tell the police we caused it are you?" asked another boy, "Just we're late for school and the headmaster won't be happy."

"You didn't cause it boys, I wasn't feeling very well, I'll tell the head you stopped to help." She hissed as Jack used a wipe on her forehead.

"What are you missing?" asked Jack conversationally.

"Physics." They all intoned glumly.

"Important subject, won't make rocket scientists any other way." Jack was chirpy, he like 21st century physics for it's simplicity.

"So what names are we giving the head then?"

They all mumbled, he was sure the teachers would know them anyway but he looked at the one still holding Gwen with him.

"Peter, Sir, Peter Cellen." He looked down, his welsh pronunciation marked.

Jack pulled up and looked at him, "and you skipped physics?"

The boy mumbled something about it not being his favourite and Jack smiled, "Try Astronomy, much more interesting. The truth is out there boys." They all laughed nervously at the funny guy in the coat.

"Emergency services are here Jack" said Ianto watching the interfering old biddy stomping off down the hill. "I've got the normal people coming out for the SUV."

"Time to split then." Jack looked at Gwen and she nodded, she would get there under her own steam if needed. "School boys, and no more skipping class." The tone brooked no argument and the lads ran off, "Reach for the stars Peter." He shouted after them

"What's that all about." Asked Ianto as he took station on Gwen's other arm.

"I think Gwen might have saved the future of space exploration. In 30 years time a Peter Cellan is the first man to step on the surface of Mars thereby starting human exploration of the solar system and the inexorable spread of _homo sapien_ across the universe."

"And you think Gwen changed something to make that happen?"

"He was about to step out, I was turning the car into the path of the on coming traffic when I blacked out." She said in awe.

"And that my friends is how Gwen saved the universe." Smiled Jack.

They all giggled at the absurd thought that one tiny action could change the whole future of humanity, until the ramifications of that thought hit home. The drive to the Hub was very quiet.


End file.
